Gaming device manufacturers constantly strive to make gaming devices that provide as much enjoyment and excitement to players as possible. Gaming devices such as slot machines, having primary and secondary or bonus games or schemes are well known. Providing a bonus game in which a player has an opportunity to win potentially large awards or credits in addition to the awards associated with the base or primary game of the gaming device is one way to enhance player enjoyment and excitement.
Gaming devices having bonus games generally employ a triggering event that occurs during play of the base game. The triggering event temporarily stalls or halts the base game play and enables a player to enter a second, different game, which is the bonus game. The player plays the bonus game, likely receives an award, and returns to the base game. In most instances, the bonus game is relatively short in relation to the time that the player spends repeatedly playing the base game.
Known gaming machines have bonus schemes in which the player has one or more opportunities to choose a particular selection or symbol from a group of symbols. When a player chooses a symbol, the game will either award the player a bonus value or terminate the bonus round. The outcome, thus, depends upon the particular symbol selected by the player. In such games, when the player selects a symbol that awards a bonus value (hereinafter referred to as “award indicator”), the player receives the value, and the player has another chance to select another symbol. Each time the player selects an award indicator, the game prompts the player to make another selection. The bonus game continues and the player may choose another symbol. The player then selects another symbol, and this process continues until the player selects a symbol which terminates the bonus game (hereinafter referred to as a “terminator”). When the player selects a terminator, typically the game ends and the player collects any bonus values that the player accumulated in that bonus round. In this type of game, the potential amount of the award is limited by the terminators.
While such bonus schemes offer advantages in player appeal and excitement, there is a continuing need to develop new types of bonus games that allow players to accumulate larger awards and increase the level of player excitement and enjoyment.